Norway: Land of the Catholic Vikings

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Well, I must say to begin, I'm a complete newbie to anything made by Paradox, and just began to play Crusader Kings, and have never played any other Paradox games, and the only one I'd ever heard of prior was Hearts of Iron. Beyond that, I am of 50% Norse descent, and thought the Kingdom of Norway would be worthy of playing. I am not playing on the same comp as the one which I play the game on, so I am incapable of posting a Image which shows my empire. Use the imagination, and be happy. I won't be able to update this very often either, having problems accessing the same comp.
The only thread I've browsed thus far is Bearly Surviving, the Novgorod AAR.

Well, after several restarts, I began with the Kingdom of Norway, Hastings 1066, Easy Difficulty and Normal Aggressiveness.

At the start of the game I failed to seal an alliance to the Kingdom of Sweden, which was a great bounty eventually. I destroyed two Pagan provinces early on, and the only deficiency in my court was Martial(7 being the best marshal, nasty bastards, the Vikings have failed me in the art of war *sob*), and eventually A Mastermind Theologian(!) was appointed to Spymaster, and lives on to the end of the update. After securing these provinces, I set about wedding my King, who happened to be the advanced age of 16 at the start of the scenario . After that, the Kingdom of Sweden declared war on me, and I was forced to order a Grand Mobilization of arms, and suffered a few defeats early on, for their king was greatly superior to mine in combat(lost a few battles where I had the advantage{1000 over 600}), but I rallied and set about attacking his capital(well not officially considered a cap I suppose, but around the same thing), and had various regiments from around my Kingdom, most consisting of less than 150 men, though the entire army was around 1300. The Capital fell, and the Kingdom of Sweden consented to seceding the province, and Sweden was dissolved into various counties. Thus, my original war was incredibly successful, and the only drawback was the death of my Liege, after being wounded and dying of a developed illness. His brother inherits and my Demesne is expanded to 8 provinces. I have about 5 possible heirs due to this, 2 from the dead brother and 3 from the current Liege. After they are educated, two become Midas TouchedO) and grant me a steward of 13 stewardship, though a minor prestige penalty subsides this. I accidentily married away the daughter who had 14 stewardship, so I was somewhat harried, but at the end I was generally satisfied.

Update ends around 1080

 

[unmerged(10727)]

Looks like you're off to a good start. I'm pretty jealous of your advisors, when I get an "8" I think that's good stuff. With Sweden out of the game you should make a bid to unite Scandinavia!

 

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Good start and nice knock out punch to the Swedes, I want more.

 

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Paranoid Tsar: My advisers I am rather proud of, but not my pathetic Marshal(main problem with the swede war), My Liege has a 4 stat and the Marshall 7, with an amazing power of 11, sad pathetic Norwegians, bah! My eyes are set on the island between Finland and Sweden, Must destroy Pagan Trash! What's even sadder is that when I was recently playing Duchy of Bavaria(a quickly abandoned game), I had a Marshall with 13 Martial stat! Well, if you didn't notice, abandoning a position and repeatedly rebuffing is the best way to attain masterful advisers, but when I got the godlike priest I was still shocked(4 stars Education is the rarest thing ever, esp. if its not your children, apparently). Another thing I noticed that might help if you need a wife and you're poor(I sometimes go into negative, being that I'll come out again) You can collect the royal duty off of an extremely old female to wed repeatedly, and truly declare yourself Henry VIII(Satanic Grin). I did make every province in my demesne have both a Training Grounds, which is very important to my Hill Fort bound legions, and Forestry for the economy. The Accursed Prestige penalty for my son being an adviser is the only problem other than the inferior Marshall(my old one had 5, and was a Coward, Pathetic piece of shikaka). Norway expands whenever my Dad lets me use his Laptop{I'm 16 and I live in Lansing, Michigan}. I love the Bearly Surviving AAR and thanks for checking mine out.
Zeno of Cyprus: I'll edit this post a bit later, gotta do some stuff, thanks for replying. Edit: Well, I'm proud of my dissolving of Sweden and the only other kingdom that lay upon the Peninsula with me is a small part of Denmark, so I'm planning to eventually take denmark{I Declare War... ON DENMARK!(It sounds funny if you put enough emphasis on Denmark)} and have a massive piece of land. I am still waiting for a full army(and it is growing rapidly), and various provinces are afflicted with either rich or poor effects. I switched my laws(prior to the finish of the first update) in the middle 4 to the one with Tourney events{if anyone has noticed, the Scandinavian provinces are largely empty of Knights in their regiments, and this actually gave me some}, the law grants Heavy with emphasis on Knights, surely the best law anyone ever came up with. Sadly my Marshall was defeated{again, Martial 7} in the only tourney event I got. Far away in England, the remnants of the Norse army after Hastings lay in five small provinces on the northern end of the island, waiting for an ambush. I'm kinda pissed that I can't play at every turn, but again, gotta wait for the laptop. Note: There are still several Pagan provinces and various counties unoccupied(by Norway, at least), but my Liege has 3 extra duke titles, one gained by the capture of the Swedish capital.

 

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Assorted actions in Scandinavia
At the start of my playing the Pope declared that I had to change my clergy law to the most favorable to clergy(#4 out of 4) or he'd excommunicate you. I must say I resent the catholicism of my land, but I guess its okay, after all, I can always change it back.
After taking Vastergotland(cap of Sweden), my armies proceed to wipe the accursed pagans from the land, and also about 8 counties in my own religion(obviously not very good for my reputation, but the rep always goes back to honorable anyway, so it doesn't matter too much). After the first conquest I gained a Marshal with stat 13(son of the original liege), and improved my capabilities.
I change law from Elective to Semisalic Consanguity, I believe, which gives my relatives all the inheritance rights. Technology focus is changed to Castles. My sons which are birthed originally have quite promising stats, but unfortunately, both of their educations are rather flawed experiences(one 1 star, one 2 star).
I conquer about 13 provinces over the course of the war, and Liege is changed to Arne Yngling, who is quite capable in all categories(ranging from 6-10). He leads the invasion of Finland and the Uppland Duchy who dared decline vassalization. Every part of the war goes flawlessly, and my Liege is able to finally claim the title "King of Sweden." Pagan influence is down to 3 or 4 provinces in Finland, and the rest belongs to the Duchy of Ostergotland and Denmark.
In the brief war with the Uppland Duchy, the province of Gotland caught my eye, with a high income and an army of 900, which was marching against me, but didn't come quick enough for me to destroy it. Denmark is allied with the far off Prinicipality of Vladimir, which may bring a large assault on my vassals in Finland, only sparsely defended. Still, Denmark must fall, and so it shall be.

 

[King of Men]

Ack! Paragraphs please! I'm sure your AAR is excellent, but I cannot read those huge blocks of text without getting an instant headache. Screenies are nice too.

 

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Fine, fine, I'll do paragraphs, but I already said I can't do screenshots. I'm holding back on the next update for a couple of days, however.

 

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Invasion of Lithuania and Spain
Well, I'm quite opposed to posting an update without any feedback but wth.

The campaign against Denmark goes well and easy, I seize 5 provinces in about 1/2 month, and it is dissolved. Blitzkrieg for the middle ages. I clear out the rest of the pagans from Finland and invade Lithuania, a Huge tribe of some 13 provinces, and their nearby provinces (all the on the southern shores of the Baltic), and the campaign marches me headlong into the contested Russian lands. I claim the titles King of Denmark and Lithuania.

After my Lithuanian campaign, the Emirate of Western Urals advances upon some newly acquired territory and take my lands easily. Its way too far away from my lands so I can't do much, but after Byzantium gets involved, I take about five of their provinces before they are somewhat brutally destroyed. Long live East Rome and Constantinople.

At this point, I'm somewhat stuck and unsure what to do, any campaign against a Christian Kingdom results in revolts in my own territories, therefore I am forced to improvise. Spain, by this point is largely destroyed by the Muslims. Castille has been dissolved, Spanish Galicia, Aragon, and Leon are nearly destroyed when I come in. I invade Portugal and destroy the local emirate, and launch a massive assault on the entire Iberian, making Cordoba my capital, giving up my former lands in Norway/Sweden to a vassal. Muslims are a lot more profitable than my pathetic self *sob*.

However, my acquisition of these territories puts me in a far greater position, and the only country greater than mine is Byzantium(Germany is about the same, but not in the score category). I gain almost all of the Iberian, with a few lingering Catholic provinces which I don't wish to destroy. I claim the titles King of Leon and Castille(Galicia and Leon are dissolved, and Aragon has two provinces in the middle of France). Being a large empire, my Dynasty has seeds amongst the other major empires.

I am limited in what I can do after this, so I invade North Africa, and destroy the three major emirates right up to the Egyptians(can't remember the name of the kingdom, but its blue on the map), and claim three King titles of Tunisia, North Africa, and Mauretania. Each of my campaigns in this update take about 10-20 years, the Iberian taking 40.

Update ends around 1220.

 

[unmerged(10727)]

Wow, you weren't kidding about being aggressive. You must have enough prestige from all those pagan/muslim wars to lean on a few coreligionists, right? Otherwise, drive for jerusalem! Looking forward to the Mongol update, too.

 

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Conquest of Egypt and Israel
Alright, The assault on El-Amatids begins. This is the first major campaign, and my liege has only a few years left of his life, and has the Crusader trait(you gain this if your life is all about killing muslims/pagans/mongols and eventually get the event, which you can dissuade or keep, the penalty goes up to 20 or so per month, but, as you will see, mountains of prestige and piety are not mythoogical).

The Amatids have 30 provinces, and I aim to take them all, and destroy their vassals one at a time after the empire is dissolved. I take five at a time, and mobilize around 25000 from the Iberian to start it. Their manpower is 60000, but only with vassals, and, as I have said before, they won't declare war on you unless you declare war on a vassal, but not on the liege. Most of egypt only has hill forts(even now), and it is easy enough to take them, but Israel takes a bit harder, as well as Alexandria. The war goes well, without a hitch, and after it(after the dissolving I believe) I have 13000 prestige and 18000 piety , and that is about as high as it gets, barring I did the entire muslim campaign with the Crusader trait. For the first time, I surpass the Byzantines in manpower and Score.
The liege dies, and his son, with a large stewardship trait does well(exceedingly so), and I conquer all the former vassals. Sadly, the damned orders and Byzantines hold 1 more province, and so I am unable to take the title, King of Jerusalem(I have 20/31, I need 21/31, all in christian hands, amazingly annoying). I basically sit tight after this and have to slay a few heirs to get a good one(without gaining kinslayer ). I actually killed the heir and his infant son was born just before the death of the second liege, and I had to wait for him to die of infant health problems. Ironic... Well, I'm just waiting out the Horde, knowing they dare not declare war on greater manpower

 

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The Golden Horde comes at 1231, but refuses to fight Byzantium, and is thus locked down until the Il Khanate breaks up some land for them. I declare war on the Sultanate of Seljuk Turks, whilst the Khanate comes from Asia, and we split the lands about half and half. The Golden Horde attacks, and destroys, 3/4 of the Khanate's 120K, and then attacks Byzantium. The Khanate is thus weak enough for me to attack, and so I take them and all their provinces. King of Persia, Mesopotamia, and Arabia, new titles, as well as Jerusalem.